I don't remember the last time a game completely enveloped me as much as Namco Bandai's new role-playing release, "Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch."

Combining the best of Japanese RPGs, this collaboration comes from the masterful developers Level-5 ("Dragon Warrior VII," the "Professor Layton" series) and the amazing Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli ("Princess Mononoke," "The Secret of Arrietti").

Players take the role of Oliver, a young boy living a normal life in a normal little town. But when Oliver's mother dies unexpectedly, his world is shaken to its core.

In his room, while Oliver holds a beloved stuffed toy, his tears break the spell of an evil wizard. His toy comes to life and sets in motion an adventure with the highest of stakes: the life of Oliver's mother.

The story takes Oliver to an alternate universe under siege. A dark Djinn has taken over the world, stealing pieces of people's hearts and destroying anyone who challenges him. Oliver must learn the ways of magic, fix broken hearts and save the world.

Advertisement

He fights his way through the world using magic and training "familiars," creatures he collects along his journey. The creature aspect is similar to "Pokemon" or "Monster Hunter" and adds an addictive quality to the game.

Like many JRPGs, the gameplay here is best described as a slow burn. The game gradually introduces various play mechanics and concepts. You start playing alone with one familiar and work your way up to a party with multiple characters, each controlling up to three familiars.

The battle system requires a deceptive amount of strategy, as well as some physical acuity -- particularly when dealing with the always-tricky bosses.

Characters share their hit and magic points with their familiars. Since only one member (character or familiar) of each character's stable can fight at a time, putting out the wrong one can be devastating.

While complex, the system is well designed, and players will be flipping through menus and issuing commands like pros in no time.

About 10 hours into the game, you will learn to capture creatures in the field, and shortly thereafter, you'll get a cauldron in which you can craft various items. Both seemingly innocent advances take the game from mild time-suck to all-consuming obsession.

You will find yourself foraging for ingredients and randomly attacking beasties to add them to your stable. I played for nearly four hours, never even attempting to advance a quest.

Oh, yeah, quests. There are plenty. The game has nearly 150 optional side-quests. You'll run errands, mend broken hearts and play bounty hunter, tracking some of the game's nastiest monsters.

For these, you get stamps that can be exchanged for exclusive items and power-ups. These give you another excuse for pressing ever forward.

I could go on and on about all the gameplay and story nuances that make this a great game, but that would mean ignoring the other great things.

Things such as the astounding graphics that look nearly as good as one of Studio Ghibli's films. The animation is fluid and charming -- everything a fan of these anime releases could hope for.

So, too, the voice-work stuns and amuses, bringing the characters to life. Sometimes, though, Oliver's exclamations in battle get a little old, especially after hearing them for the thousandth time.

Finally, the game's score, performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic, expresses the full range of emotions. It stands among the best game scores ever.

Those who enjoy the sub-genre of JRPGs will fall in love with "Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch." It's difficult to entirely give this game its due. But if you've ever loved a "Pokemon," "Tales" or "Dragon Quest" game, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story